RIO DE JANEIRO – Welterweight Erick Silva may not have left Saturday night’s UFC 142 event as a winner, but he’ll be paid like one.

At the evening’s post-event press conference at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena, UFC president Dana White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Silva will receive his win bonus despite being saddled with a disqualification loss.

“We’re going to pay him like he won the fight,” White told MMAjunkie.com.

Silva (13-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) took on Carlo Prater (30-10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) on the evening’s main card and appeared to notch a 29-second TKO win after landing a powerful knee to the body and following up with punches on the floor. However, after referee Mario Yamasaki waved off the fight, he revealed he was ruling the contest a disqualification as Silva’s blows were deemed to have illegally landed to the back of the head. While a referee could simply deduct a point for the infraction, Prater was in no shape to continue, forcing the DQ.

White said he disagreed with Yamasaki’s assessment of the fight-ending sequence, prompting him to award the win bonus.

Despite the frustrating result, Silva said he felt happy with his performance.

“I went in there to present myself in the best possible means, and I think I was able to do that despite the result not being what I expected,” Silva said in his native Portuguese. “I did the best possible and unfortunately, I do also think he made a mistake, but we need to move forward.”

Silva has the right to appeal Yamasaki’s ruling. With no governing body in place, UFC executive Marc Ratner would ultimately make the decision.

Ratner declined to give his initial thoughts on the ruling but said he would be open to reviewing the contest.

White said he thinks Silva would be wise to appeal in hopes of removing an official loss from his record in favor of what would likely be deemed a no-contest.

“I would appeal it if I was him,” White said. “The thing is that when you do it, Ratner is the guy to talk to about this. We try to run things the way that they’re supposed to be run, like the athletic commission would.”

White, who is never afraid to speak freely when he’s upset at an official, was quick to defend Yamasaki’s creditability as a referee. Rather than suggesting the longtime official was incompetent, White said the alleged mistake shows the real need for instant replay in the sport as a means of quickly correcting simple mistakes.

“Listen, there are refs out there like Steve Mazzagatti that are just plain bad. He’s a bad ref. He’s got no business in the ring. But you’ve got guys like Mario Yamasaki and some of the other guys that are going to make mistakes. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes. There’s nothing wrong. We’re [expletive] human. We’re going to do it. But you have to be able to go back and say, ‘We made a mistake. Here’s the proof. Let’s overturn it.'”

Yamasaki’s disputed call wasn’t the only officiating oddity of the night. Many fans and pundits openly questioned referee Dan Miragliotta’s repeated restarts of Vitor Belfort and Anthony Johnson in the night’s co-main event. While the moves certainly didn’t come during the middle of an important transition or submission attempt, they did seem to come in rather quick fashion.

White also believes Miragliotta’s actions were indicative of the officiating inconsistencies that often seem to plague the sport.

“Inconsistency,” White said. “First of all, I think when there’s any stalling and [expletive] like that, you should be stood up. But I saw on Twitter and stuff that people were saying the stand-ups were quick, and I would not disagree. I think it’s inconsistent.”

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.